If you write the occasional sponsored post or post written more for SEO than readers, you may not want the visibility of these posts to be the same as a regular blog post.  This issue typically comes up when you need to earn a few extra dollars, and are tempted to write some unrelated sponsored posts, but don’t want to lose your readership over it.   There is an easy solution… well if you are on WordPress there is.

The number one concern most bloggers will have is keeping these posts off their Feeds.  Having “Super Spammy Blog Post” show up in readers emails or feed readers is a sure way to get unsubscribed fast.  This plug-in will give you the option to block individual post from your feed, with one click.

The next biggest concern is not having “Super Spammy Blog Post” prominently displayed at the top of your front page.  Heck it would be better is it never even appeared on the homepage at all.  This could be handled by making other posts sticky until, the post rotates down or off  the home page, but that is not an ideal solution.  This plug-in will exclude selected posts from showing on your homepage.

In most cases, blocking the posts from showing up in your feed and front page should be sufficient.  If you have written something truly embarrassing, and want to hide evidence of it from your categories, archives, tags, author pages or even search results, that can also be done with this WordPress plug-in.  Of course if it is that bad, maybe you shouldn’t be publishing it at all.

The name of this plug-in is WP Hide Post.

Here is a screen shot of the box it provides on your WordPress dashboard.  As you can see, a simple click will exclude a post from homepage, feed or one of many other options.

Many times, sponsored posts fit in wonderfully with your blog, and should be fully showcased.  Sometimes, the sponsor is working with you specifically to access your reader base.  In these cases, you will most likely not want to limit the visibility of posts.  Keep in mind what your sponsor is looking for, and why they are working with you.

I put in page views per post on my primary blog back in September, and a few people have asked how to do this. It is quite easy actually, especially if you are using the Genesis Framework or another WordPress theme with hooks.

Most bloggers are already aware that comments on posts only reflect a tiny trickle of those who actually visit the post.  Unless the topic is particularly controversial, or you have enabled dofollow links, most read and just move on, leaving no trace of themselves behind other than in stats programs.  Non-bloggers barely ever leave comments, unless you are running a giveaway.  Add to this, that many bloggers shut down comments after a period of time, to cut back on spam moderation.

There is a WordPress plug-in called WP-PostViews, that makes adding page views to your posts or pages quite easy. Simply install the Plug-in, then adjust the settings to block it from counting your own pageviews and those of bots.  Once you have done that, just insert a small code into your theme, and you should be up and running.  If your theme has hooks, it is super easy, just insert the code in before the post content.  If you have a more traditional theme paste the code in right after the coding for your post header (in the single post file). For more detailed instructions go here –> http://lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-postviews.html

If you find yourself a bit low on comments, compared to page views, or you have a theme which does not show comment count once the post is closed to new comments, adding your page views can help exhibit the strength of your reach.  This is very important for bloggers who do, or wish to do promotional work.

There has been a ton of buzz about Google deleting a bunch of blogs, hosted on their free Blogger/Blogspot service lately.  Many bloggers I know are deserting Google’s Blogger platform, like rats off a sinking ship.  I am a fan of WordPress myself, so I think they will all be much happier in the end.  In the meantime, the primary goal, is not to lose all your work, and creating a safety net is quick and easy.

Backing Up a Blogspot Blog

If you are on a Blogspot blog, and are concerned that your blog may be targeted for deletion, the first thing you should do is make a copy of your blog immediately.  This is very easily done. Just, go in your settings, click on the “export” option. This will create a file for you, that you can save right on your own computer just in case, your blog ever gets deleted. You should make a fresh copy of this file on a regular basis.   Make sure to label this file clearly. If your blog gets wiped out, you will probably be a bit stressed already. You don’t need to be pulling your hair out trying to remember the name of the file.

This is such a simple thing to do, but if you don’t do it, and your blog ends out getting deleted, it could easily be the most expensive few minutes you didn’t spend.  Cover your butt and make a copy NOW.

One of the main troubles with generating numerous back links to a post, is scheduling them so that they don’t all fall within a short time period.  Google sees staggered backlinks as more natural and somehow their “hocus pocus” formula seems to place higher value on sites which generate back links over time, rather than those that pile them up, then move on.  This does make sense, but is a PITA for those trying to work on their overall PR, or promote a particular post/page.

While doing some research on automating back links, I stumbled across an easy to use automatic bookmarking  tool, which drip feeds the backlinks for you.  The tool is called the IMAutomator.  It has both a free and Pro version, and is incredibly easy to use.  Simply paste in the URL you wish to promote, click a button which extracts the description and tags, then select a catagory  and how staggered you want the bookmarks created (from 3 options), and submit.  Done, the IMAutomator does the rest of the work for you.

IMAutomator does not exclusively bookmark on dofollow social sites, but does focus on sites which are.  The service also just added RSS feed submission, which is free for this week only.  Next week when the Pro version has it’s limmited launch, the RSS feed submission, and about half the list of bookmarking sites will become exclusive to the paid pro version, until then you can try them out for free.  Don’t dawdle, the downgraded free version will come into effect on May 31st.

I don’t do much marketing, and my primary blog runs a lot of giveaways and such, so I will be staying with the free version for now, but the Pro version may be something I will get in the future.

http://www.imautomator.com/

P.S. I do know bookmarks go through, because I get Google alerts for them occasionally.

While Alexa has it’s problems, and it’s ability to accurately depict site traffic is debatable, it is still  important to attain the best ranking you can. This is one of the most readily seen measurements of your site’s reach.  If you want to work with companies and PR reps, doing reviews and giveaways on your blog, a good Alexa ranking can be beneficial.  Although most advertisers will be more interested in Google Page Rank, or actual traffic counts, Alexa  data is occasionally even used to select sites to advertise on.  Those looking to get the most out of their blogs should at least, make a some minimal effort to enhance their rank position.

When launching a new blog, it is advisable to install the Alexa toolbar in your browser, early on.  The sooner you install the better.  I would advise adding one of the small widgets to your sidebar, as well.  Many report it seems to help.

Alexa’s primary rankings are based on the last 3 months of estimated traffic.  Monthly traffic is also quantified, but the 3 month ranks are what are in general usage.  Traffic estimates are calculated from the number of Alexa Toolbar users visiting your site, rather than with tracking codes, like many other traffic reporting sites.  Due to this calculation method, those who have the toolbar installed, are at a considerable advantage in this system, as their own visits count toward their site’s ranking.

I am in the rare position of having the primary domain which my hosting is set-up with, be seasonable in nature.  It is a Christmas blog.  As I am sure you can imagine, it is rarely visited during the off-season.  Since it is my primary domain, the control panel for all my blogs run through it.  Although no traffic to these other blogs is reflected in the Alexa ranking of this one, my CPanel visits do count.  The blog has an Alexa rank in the upper 300 thousand range.  I would assume  anyone  regularly visiting their own blog with the toolbar could safely expect similar results.

Getting past the 3-4 hundred thousand range will require additional visitors, who have the toolbar installed.  Most people who have the toolbar, are bloggers themselves.  Thus, obtaining visits from other bloggers  can boost your ranking.  From what I have seen, WordPress bloggers are far more likely to have the bar installed over blogspot users.  Leaving meaningful comments on WordPress blogs and  hanging out where other bloggers, who use this platform do, can help.

Another legitimate way to enhance you Alexa rank is through redirecting links to your site through their system.  In the case of this site a link would look like this: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?slymom.com (Just replace “slymom” with your own domain name.)

Alexa users have the ability to write reviews of  other sites.  Some have reported this can help boost rank.  Others that it makes no difference whatsoever.  It couldn’t hurt.  Perhaps one of your blogging pals will review your site for you.

Be sure to let me know how you progress with your Alexa rank.  I’m a stats junkie

The name of your blog is more than just a name.  It is part of the “brand” you are creating. Here are some things to keep in mind when selecting your new blog’s domain name.

Easy to Remember ~ Difficult to remember names are hard to promote.  Visitor’s can find your posts interesting, but unless they specifically go through the effort to bookmark you in some way, they are unlikely to stop in again anytime soon.  You will be the blog they vaguely remember, but just can’t think of the name. 

Does It Reflect Content ~ Have you ever visited a website, and found something entirely different from what you expected?  This is not what you want visitors to think about your site.  Surfers are seldom fond of surprises.  If you have a name that creates the expectation that your site is about kittens, it should be about kittens.

General Names ~ If you are not certain of what direction your blog might go in the future, select something more general in nature.  Your children will grow, your interests will change, don’t pigeon hole yourself in a domain name that won’t fit you a few years from now.  Changing down the road, can be a real hassle, resulting in loss of pagerank and traffic.

Make Sure the “.com” of your Name is Available ~ Even if you plan on going with a free  blogspot blog, buy a .com domain for your blog.  Yes, you can utilize the name with Google’s blogger service.  This not only makes your blog more acceptable to companies who may work with you in the future, but makes switching to WordPress far easier later on.  If you work hard and start to do well with your blogspot blog, there are people out there who will grab up your domain name.   Protect yourself from these “traffic leeches”, and domain name resellers, by beating them to the punch.  Domain name registration is less than $10 per year, from most registrars.

Short is Sweet ~ You won’t always be able to find a good match, in a short name, but try and shoot for brevity.  Most top websites tend to have shorter names.  They are fast to type in and often more memorable.  The odds of finding a memorable 4-5 letter name are almost non-existent, but keeping your name under 12 letters is helpful.  6-7 letter names are still to be found.  I grabbed SlyMom.com only a few days ago.  It wouldn’t be a good name for most mommy blogs, but works for what I am doing here.  Maybe your little gem is waiting for you.

Be Flexible ~  Unless you are dead-set on something in particular, brainstorm a list of names.  Asking friends either online or off, what they would expect of a site with any of the names on the list, and which would be easier for them to remember, can save you the hassle of a name change down the road.

Utilize Keywords ~ Selecting a name which contains a keyword, or keyword combination that is frequently searched by people interested in your niche can be a nice kick start to your SEO efforts. The Google Keyword tool can be very helpful in this area.

Keeping these tips in mind when selecting the name for your blog can help, but in the end, the most important thing is whether you will be happy with the name.  Much like a child’s name, it is something you will be seeing and hearing for many years to come.

Since I am in the process of getting my brand new blog, Sly Mom up and running, it seemed the perfect opportunity to document some steps to take when starting a new WordPress blog.  It is far easier after you have done this a few times.  For brand new WordPress bloggers the process can seem a bit overwhelming.  I will try and save you some  time, by helping you sift through the available plug-ins.  You may decide to switch in the future but these are some of the best plug-ins, in my opinion.

To install these, just open your WordPress dashboard in another window, click plug-ins, then click add new,  the page that comes up, will have a search bar.  Simply copy and paste the plug-in titles, and the search will bring up the required plug-in.  Click install, then activate.  When you install each, pay attention to which ones have settings options.  These options enhance the usefulness of the plug-ins.

Topsy Retweet Button~ This is the button in the top right corner of my posts.  It is an effective and easy to use retweeter, which has several different color options to coordinated with your blog’s theme.  While, many other retweeters are clumsy, requiring the user to tweak results, or fail to add a @yourtwittername to the tweet, this one effectively does it all.  By the way, you want the @yourtwittername in the retweets, because it helps promote your twitter account, to new audiences. Settings: Make sure to select the color you want, type in your twitter name, and select the shortener service you prefer (I just use the second (is.gd) option, since it is the easiest).

Google XML Sitemaps ~ This plug-in creates a search engine friendly map of your site.  It only takes a few seconds to install, and makes no visual change to your blog, but ensures that all your pages and posts can readily be crawled by search engines. Settings: Default settings won’t require much change for most bloggers.

SexyBookmarks ~ The SexyBookmarks plug-in can be seen at the bottom of each post here at SlyMom.com.  It is easy to install, and has a wide array of social networking buttons to choose from.   I have tried several similar plug-ins, but this is my personal favorite.  Making it easy for yourself and visitors to spread the word about your posts, can help both traffic and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), for your blog. Settings: SexyBookmarks has so many social buttons available, that you are better off deselecting some, and rearranging the ones you keep (simple drag & drop procedure), get rid of those in languages you are not targeting, those for topics you don’t cover and ones you have never even heard of.

Subscription Options ~ If the theme you are using does not have a full set of subscription options built in, this plug-in will come in very handy.  It will provide a widget that you can drop into your sidebar, that supplies email, rss, twitter &  facebook buttons. You can activate all of them, or just the ones you need, and resizing them to fit your sidebar nicely, can be done  right in the widget.  Recently, the plug-in upgraded to give you color choices for the buttons, as well.  You may opt to go with custom buttons designed for your site later, but these work great and are super easy to install. Settings:  This plug-in has all it’s functions built right into the drag and drop widget.  Just drag it over, fill in your info and select size and colors.  So easy.

Platinum SEO Pack ~ This is the free premium version of the  All-in-One SEO plug-in.  If you already have that one installed, you can migrate your info right over to it.  In this case we are skipping that step and going straight to the better performing option.  This will help you set up metatags, properly formatted urls and set up nofollows for sections and posts on  your blog. Metatags and proper url format are a good base to start your your search optimization.   Easily being able to select  nofollow on individual posts is absolutely essential, if you plan on doing any sponsored posts.  Google will penalize you for not doing so. Settings: Fill in the title, description and keywords.  Nofollow category listings on pages, posts, archive pages, archive posts and tag pages.  Most other selections should be left on default settings.

There are many other useful WordPress plug-ins, which should be installed early on in the process of starting a blog.  More will be covered in part 2 of this article.

So here it goes Sly Mom is now live.  This will be the spot where all my SEO, traffic generation, and  subscription boosting experiments will be discussed.  Branding yourself, and protecting that brand are essential to sucessful blogging and that will be touched upon too. I will also have tips for getting a new blog up & running, on the right track.

I have dabbled in blogging for awhile now, and always seem to be launching something new.  My past and present projects have gotten me accustomed to setting up a blog and getting it moving along.  Perhaps I can help a few newbie bloggers avoid making some mistakes, and even occasionally point out something established bloggers have missed.